Sunday, May 01, 2016

Ages!

Yesterday was the annual St Margaret Clitheroe Procession and Mass in York, it was a nasty wet day, not a day for the best vestments to be out. Attendance was down, so what is interesting is youth of those attending. There are obviously people of all ages but it is the number of younger people that is significant. Here is a link to picture file.

I clicked on your link and simply got "Facebook". Now, I have nothing to do with Facebook and I don't want anything to do with Facebook so I could not see the photographs. I do know St. Wilfred's church in York and I am very familiar with the chapel of St. Margaret Clitheroe in The Shambles. I have been there many times. It is really part of my heritage. I even served two years National Service in the RAF just out of York (much to my surprise). I could not have been posted closer to home! I'm a Yorkshireman. I am very pleased to read that there were many young people at this event.

The day went very well, the mass was beautiful and Fr Henry's homily was first rate.

What a beautiful Church St Wilfrids is. (My only complaint about dual rite Churches is about those silly tables which block the altars and can partially obscure what the priest is doing. Get rid of the tables!)

Some friends and I traveled from Scotland to take part. When we arrived in York that morning, it was glorious sunshine, so we left our rain jackets and umbrellas in the Car.

But during the procession, it rained mercilessly and we were drookit (to use a Scots adjective). My jumper must have held kilos of water. But any thoughts of self-pity quickly melted away when St Margaret's ordeal was called to mind.

Last Sunday I was at the New Mass. I saw one new unattached "young" male ,i.e.,between sixteen and say 45, the future of the Church, there. the other one often there was not! When I get to the Gregorian Mass, numbers are holding, the age spread is good, and getting younger as the oldies decline.

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna

Pray for Francis our Pope, and for the Church of God

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